Good day to sit and write up my build. Winter Storm Nemo is just starting to get heavy here, about 4", and its coming down fast.

I bought my 1994 YJ 4.0L 5spd in October 2012.
I previously owned a 1998 TJ 4.0L 5spd a few years back, but only owned it for one winter while I still had my Mustangs. It was bone stock minus some 31" BFG AT's.

I looked for about 6 months to find one locally that wasnt a hack attack project of someone elses, or rusted to pieces, or just an overall mess.
Much harder than I originally thought!

I found this one in NY, listed for $3400, 156k miles. Advertised as running well, but not used for 6 months.
Upon inspection, I found a rotted rear upper shock mount, a leaky wheel cylinder, a relatively clean frame, and an engine that sounded very good, and started easy. Compression test showed 160-165psi on all cylinders, so I started bargaining.
I got him down to $2800, knowing it needed brakes and some other items.
This didnt bother me, as I already planned to replace ALL the brakes, and suspension, and steering.

Rolled it into my shop in late October, right after Superstorm Sandy.
Hectic week at my marina, after we finished clean up, started the tear down.
And like my friends already know about me, its hard for me to look at something, and not improve it in some way shape or form.
Whether it is modifying, replacing, updating, cleaning, painting, etc, I cant leave $h!t alone lol.

Rockauto got a huge order from me as well, so I could start to re assemble it all.
While it was stripped down to the frame, I wire brushed, scraped, sanded and painted the frame with POR15. And a coat of Rustoleum High Peformance Enamel spray over the top of that. The under side of the body was also wire brushed, and painted with Rustoleum Rust Reformer (awesome product!).

I lucked out, not needing to buy tires right away.
It came with VERY new D window steelies, and 31" Bridgestone Dueler AT's.
Too small for my liking, but being so new, and possible snow around the corner, these will do fine for the winter.

Can anyone spot the two mistakes I made while installing the suspension??!??!?

cRaZy888

02-08-2013 01:46 PM

So I drove it around like this for a while. Needed to get it out of my shop so we could load it up with boats for the winter.
I planned to bring it back in once in a while to fix some other things:

So I picked up a header off of eBay, and to say the least, IT SUCKED- more on this later.

A couple months went by, and this brings me up till the last two weeks.
I planned to bring the Jeep back into the shop (in the heat!), to finish up some loose ends.

-installed a Kenwood head unit
-removed, trimmed, and painted the trans tunnel/shift plate, the combo of the 1" body lift from the previous owner, and the TC 1" drop that I installed, made it very hard to get into 2nd and reverse.

Sorry no pics of these two mods.

Then I took a break from the Jeep to finish up some items on my truck-

-replace bed with new 2013 unit
-new tailgate, tail lights, bumper
-Plasti-dip the wheels, emblems, bumpers, grill, and bottom two tone of body paint
-finish some engine mods to help support the new turbo/injector combo
-install new head unit

I dropped the head off at the machine shop to get it cleaned up, new seals, grinding of the valves and seats, and have the bottom milled flat.
While waiting for the head, I cleaned and painted the valve cover, intake manifold, accessory brackets, power steering pump:

The new header fits much better. Better welds, etc. Got this one from 1A Auto, $140 shipped. They call it their "high quality" manifold. They sell another for $80, not stainless, welds looked crappy on that one.

Still need to snap a few more pics.
Modified some stuff on the driver side fender to clean it all up, make it look neater.
Also painted the fender while it was off.
I have some better shots of the cleaned up PCV/CCV system I routed.\
And forgive the neon yellow hoses for the MAP sensor at the back, I ran out of black vacuum hose.
Also, I was able to delete a port on the intake and blocked it off.

But its all back together and running great.
Love how simple these Jeeps are, and how easy to fix/diagnose/work on them is!

cRaZy888

02-09-2013 12:36 AM

Went to dinner at my sisters to eat pizza with the kids.
Nemo was in full force!
We are seeing an easy 2-3" per hour right now.
Went and grabbed the shop truck and plowed both marinas, and a couple of family members houses.
The YJ does much better in the snow than our 2012 F250, ext cab, short bed, 6.2L gasser,

My tires came in yesterday, and Ive had the rims on hand for about a month now. Got to play with the new tire machine. Must say, its pretty sweet. Very easy to use, nylon bead roller leaves no marks on rim and doesnt gouge tires. Difficult time getting the beads to pop, I went with the ether method, never done it before, works great! Very easy, just dont use too much, and they pop right on!

Had some more shop time with the Jeep today.
Got my LED tail lights, reverse light and license plate lights installed.
Had to move the plate bracket down so it didnt interfere with the reverse lights.
Also came up with a slick little coolant overflow bottle, forgot to take pics of that after the install.

Its an eBay SmittyBilt copy. Actually very beefy. The plate is very sturdy, welds are solid. Tube is very strong as well- enough that I can stand on it (6'4" 240lbs). One minor complaint is the paint finish. It has held up well, except right at the shackle mounts, its chipped a little there. But VHT's wrinkle finish chassis coat is a perfect match.

Only $238, free shipping, weighs about 90-100lbs.

cRaZy888

02-16-2013 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCDonny
(Post 3375144)

looks good you have made a lot of good changes

Thanks man, Im finding this a fun vehicle to mess around with. Fairly easy to work on, relatively inexpensive parts, very simple design. Its all about making it "your own"!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kywaterman
(Post 3375340)

lookin good man, that engine bay looks slick!

I guess the attention to detail paid off :cool:
It took a lot of extra time when I had it all apart to wire brush/sand/scuff/clean and paint all the little extra pieces for the engine.

dancin1

02-16-2013 10:11 AM

Great story and pics, thanks.

Gunz n tractorz

02-16-2013 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cRaZy888

Its an eBay SmittyBilt copy. Actually very beefy. The plate is very sturdy, welds are solid. Tube is very strong as well- enough that I can stand on it (6'4" 240lbs). One minor complaint is the paint finish. It has held up well, except right at the shackle mounts, its chipped a little there. But VHT's wrinkle finish chassis coat is a perfect match.

Jeep looks awsome, good job. We'll have to meet up sometime. You ever go to mettowee offroad park in Whitehall?

cRaZy888

02-18-2013 04:30 PM

I havent. Not even sure where that is. Ill have to look it up. Thanks!

cRaZy888

02-19-2013 08:33 PM

3 Attachment(s)

Added a bunch of lights today.
Replaced the under dash lights with white underwater LED 4" strips.
Replaced the weak OEM hard top dome light with a 6" blue version of the others.
Replaced all the dash bulbs with blue LED.
Painted all the dash parts with black Plastidip.